4.7 Role of Scrutiny of Legislation Committee
The Scrutiny of Legislation Committee is a standing parliamentary committee that reviews all introduced Bills and comments on their compliance with fundamental legislative principles. The Scrutiny Committee is set up under the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001, section 80. See also section 103 of that Act for more detail about the Scrutiny Committee's area of responsibility.
The Scrutiny Committee also examines the explanatory notes accompanying a Bill, both to help in its examination of the Bill and to consider the adequacy of the notes.
The Scrutiny of Legislation Committee issues Alert Digests in which it reports its conclusions to the Legislative Assembly. An Alert Digest is usually agreed on by the Scrutiny Committee on the Monday of a week in which the Assembly is sitting, and tabled in the House the following day.
If the Scrutiny Committee reports on a Bill, generally its report on that Bill will appear in the Alert Digest of the next sitting week after the sitting week in which the Bill is introduced into the Assembly.
A subsequent Alert Digest will contain the Scrutiny Committee's response to any correspondence the sponsoring Minister forwards to the committee as a result of the committee's comments on the Bill.
The Bill's sponsoring Minister is usually given advance notice of the Scrutiny Committee's likely comments on the Bill. Whether or not this happens, with prompt action there is usually enough time before the Bill is debated in the House for:
- the Minister to respond to the committee's report
- the committee to respond to the Minister's letter
- both responses to be included in the subsequent Alert Digest.
Whether the Minister should consult with OQPC before responding to the Scrutiny Committee's comments depends on the circumstances. However, particular circumstances where consultation is highly desirable are:
- when the Scrutiny Committee has an issue with the drafting of any provision, in particular when the committee expresses concern as to whether the legislation is unambiguous and drafted in a sufficiently clear and precise way, as mentioned in the Legislative Standards Act 1992, section 4(3)(k)
- when to amend legislation in line with the Scrutiny Committee's comments may have an impact on precedent based provisions in use generally in all departments' legislation.
The Scrutiny Committee's Alert Digests are a common source of amendments proposed in the Legislative Assembly. Because of the potential for amendments, comments made by the Scrutiny Committee are usually the subject of discussion between the sponsoring Minister and the officers of the sponsoring department.
The Scrutiny of Legislation Committee also has a role in relation to amendments to Bills, known as amendments during consideration in detail. On 13 May 2004, the Legislative Assembly conferred upon the Scrutiny of Legislation Committee the function and discretion to examine and report on the application of the fundamental legislative principles to amendments, whether or not the Bill to which the amendments relate has received royal assent.
Last reviewed: 17 July, 2009
Last updated: 22 July, 2009
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